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Sunday, July 16, 2017

In a surprisingly frank outburst, Fox News anchor Shep Smith tore into
the Trump administration on Friday for its lack of transparency on the
unfolding Russia scandal.

"Why is it lie after lie after lie?" Smith said to fellow anchor Chris Wallace. "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling."

What set Smith off was the latest development about a June 2016 meeting
between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign chairman
Paul Manafort, and a Russian lawyer who reportedly offered dirt on
then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Reports on Friday revealed
there were more people in attendance than Trump originally acknowledged.

"We're still not clean on this, Chris. If there’s nothing there — and
that’s what they tell us … If all of that, why all these lies?" an
exasperated Smith said.

The reprimand was uncharacteristic coming from Fox News, which has been
reliably positive in its coverage of the White House. Since news of the
Trump Jr. meeting broke last week, pundits on the network have targeted
their criticism at the media, President Obama, and Hillary Clinton
herself.

"There are still people who are out there who believe we’re making it
up," Smith said. "And one day they’re gonna realize we’re not and look
around and go, Where are we, and why are we getting told all these
lies?"

The Washington Post went
so far as calling the Smith monologue his "Walter Cronkite" moment. In
1968, the esteemed CBS anchor gave a pessimistic report on the Vietnam
War, supposedly leading President Lyndon Johnson to mutter, "If I've
lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

Wallace also seemed to make an appeal to those defending the Trump Jr. meeting.

"This really shouldn't be a matter of liberal vs. conservative,
pro-Trump vs. anti-Trump," Wallace said. "If you're a fair-minded
citizen, you ought to be concerned about the fact that we were
repeatedly misled about what this meeting concerned."

Watch the segment below:

Shep Smith: "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling...why are we getting told all these lies?"